


A Special Day

by Harukami



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-18
Updated: 2014-11-18
Packaged: 2018-02-26 02:56:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2635424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Virus and Trip take Sei out for his yearly day off.</p><p>(Happy birthday, RubyD!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Special Day

Once a year, the same time every year, Virus and Trip take Sei out into Platinum Jail properly. It's an adventure, albeit one that he's only permitted to go on under supervision -- but also the only adventure he ever has. They think he can't really complain. 

(He asked them, one year, if it was his birthday or something. They laughed, and Virus said he didn't know. That had been a lie. He does know; he'd arranged this outing around it. Toue had decided a once a year outing was a good idea for Sei's survival, as humans tend to push themselves a little longer if they have a concept of 'something to look forward to', a problem that would be erased in his ideal world. So, he told them, take him out once a year. Virus knows Sei's birthday, of course, has seen the records of the time he was taken from the test tube and severed from his dead brother, and and picked a day that wasn't that. Sei hasn't followed up with them since the first time they expressed ignorance, but if he researches on his own, he needs to be able to find out that the days don't match. Sei shouldn't be someone who is permitted to view himself as a creature that has a birthday, after all, like a human being might.)

They don't take him to their actual territory, of course. The Old Resident District is too low-class for someone like Sei. Even breathing the air might corrupt his lungs, Virus jokes at one point, and Trip laughs and agrees that Sei'd gag on it; he makes a gagging sound to illustrate it. Sei doesn't react, of course, isn't even paying attention, staring out the window at the artificial sky beyond and waiting for them to take him out. They'll take him somewhere nice, they promise. The aquarium. Walks through the main square. Of course, he's not really, truly going outside -- Platinum Jail is walled off, a dome where the entire interior is as controlled as the tower that Sei spends the rest of the year in, with no sun, just a beautiful fake sky of fake stars, and the air temperature, movement, the rain, the heat, the cold when it comes, is all just a product of science. But it's a time Sei can pretend to go outside, and it's all just a big game anyway, isn't it, Virus remarks to Trip one day. 

Yeah, Trip says, but the Old Resident's District is too, and so's the rest of the island. Mainland too. Probably the whole world. Virus can't disagree. One might be controlled, and the other not (yet) but it's not like there's any reason to treat one as more real than the other. The Old Resident's District is their playground, and Platinum Jail is Toue's, but they're Toue's, so the Old Resident District is secretly Toue's playground as well.

(Though they keep some secrets from Toue, don't they, Virus muses. He doesn't speak, of course, just shares the information in a silent smile to Trip. It's dangerous to speak, as much as he likes the sound of his own voice; even when you think you know who's listening, you don't. But if Toue's controlling the game board from up on high, that means he can't see all the little details. That works for them. It might corrupt Sei by letting him actually live instead of stay in his sterile petri dish, and heaven knows Sei can't be allowed to live -- but they have Aoba there, bright and friendly and dangerous and hiding a secret even he doesn't know about, and rather stupid and gullible too, of course. Eventually this will have to change; they both know it. Toue will change it. But neither of them care about the future, so it doesn't matter. The future's a deeply unreal thing.)

"Dress up in this, Sei," Trip says, shoving a thigh-length black dress at Sei. Sei takes it and smiles at him.

"It's nice," Sei says. "That's soft."

"Yeah. You like soft things."

Sei doesn't agree or disagree, but he strips down. There's no reason for him to look for privacy when doing this, and they don't suggest it, just sit easily and watch him as he gets naked, pulls on leggings, his dress. It hangs loosely off his shoulders, the sleeves covering his hands unless he pushes them up. There's a skull on the front of it, stitched in carefully.

Holding his arms out, Sei turns slowly for them. He asks, without words, how he looks.

"Hm," Virus says. "It's not bad, but I think you need a finishing touch."

"A finishing touch?" Sei tilts his head. Virus knows that he doesn't actually feel curious, but he likes to mime it sometimes to make conversations go normally. It's a bit cute.

Trip holds out a collar, the chain still attached to it. "How's this? It'll help us keep an eye on you while we're out there."

Sei's no fun, though. There's no way he wants to wear it, be pulled around by his fragile neck, be treated like a dog, but it doesn't show. He's not eager, but he's not visibly uncomfortable either. He just looks at Trip in a passive way, less like he cares and more like he doesn't understand.

(He does, of course. Sei has a temper to him, a deep-seated anger and a stubbornness, but he knows that neither will ever have any meaning or result in his life, so he doesn't act on them. Virus and Trip know that no matter how much they pry at him, stab into him, he doesn't have any weaknesses any more. It's not because he's strong, not exactly; rather, it's just that scar tissue is thicker than skin. He's like a doll, ceramic on the outside, hollow on the inside, with the possibility of making you wonder if there's some grudge possessing it to make it continue to move. Though that, itself, is a sentimental musing.)

Sei takes the collar, the chain clanking as it trails loosely to Trip's grip. "Did you think I'd go out of your sight?" He still says it curiously. He's not angry, of course, they know that. This is a symptom, not the problem, and he knows it. 

"It'll suit your outfit, Sei-san," Virus says.

Sei smiles, his lips pale but loose rather than tense. He puts the collar on himself.

Trip rises, tugs on the chain; Sei takes a few steps forward. "Come on," he says. "Let's go, Sei."

"Yes, let's go, Sei-san," Virus agrees. "After all, today is your special day."

They go out. Virus picks most of the destinations, sticking to the ones he'd mentioned earlier to Sei. The aquarium, Sei gazing up at the sea life in the dim lighting with his unreadable black eyes, watching them swim. Walks through the main square, listening to people sigh about how amazing life under Toue-sama's guidance is. To an Allmate shop to look at the latest models; this Virus chooses as a pick-me-up, because he knows Sei genuinely enjoys Allmates. It's important to follow negative mood beats with positive ones, to keep an interesting flow of reactions. Sei crouches down, Trip still holding his collar, and the Allmates crowd around him as if they're real animals. 

(Virus wonders what exactly happens when he touches them. Is he planning his desperate escape from this uneasy scenario? Does he pass his fingers through the fur of a cat here and implant part of himself in there? Another fragment of himself in the bird perched on his shoulder? Is this place an escape more than any door in this place; does he enter this place and imagine seeing the outside world through additional electronic eyes? He probably won't, though. The Allmates in this shop are upscale; they can be owned by the residents here, not those outside. But Virus supposes some of these people might, perhaps, leave; he supposes that some of these Allmates might, perhaps, link to others outside. Perhaps Sei's little escapes are based on logic that small.) 

After the Allmate shop is a cake shop. This one is picked by Trip, of course. In all honesty, Virus doesn't like cake very much, or at least, not the types that Trip likes. Trip's cakes are more frosting than cake, usually. But their similarity to each other is a game by now, so he'll eat it to keep the return volley in the air. Trip buys them all cake, too much cake, and puts a large slice in front of Sei. Sei, of course, doesn't like cake at all.

(Actually, Virus thinks, Sei doesn't like food at all, though it's a bit better than the feeding tube and saline drips that he's been reduced to now and then. But he always eats like it's meaningless fuel for a machine he's driving instead of any kind of experience in and of itself.)

This kind of cake, in particular, is bad for Sei; he's sensitive to milk. Cream products turn his stomach and leave him queasy for hours, or so his biometrics have shown in the past. But he smiles, and thanks Trip, and eats what's put in front of him, even though it's too much for him to eat, even if he wanted to eat, even if it didn't make him feel sick. Trip tells him that he's welcome with a self-satisfied air.

When they have eaten the cake, they get up to leave. Sei tries to take their hands to walk together; Virus and Trip allow it. They look like such good friends like this, Virus remarks aloud as they walk together.

"We are friends, after all," Sei says.

Virus realizes, of course, that by doing this Trip can no longer pull on his chain, as they're held too closely together now. This is Sei's will. Trip probably doesn't realize it until he wants to pull on the chain; Virus knows the exact moment he realizes, because Trip drops the chain lazily, lets it drag behind them, an irritating scraping sound, a weight on Sei's neck, a risk if any passerby steps on it.

They return to Oval Tower, to Sei's room. But it's Sei's special day, after all, so they undress him and treat him specially. They don't always, of course. He can take anything, so they can do whatever they feel like. It's not as fun as doing whatever they feel like to someone who can't take it, but there's its own kind of satisfaction to it. Not knowing whether they feed Sei's deep resentment or not, just playing with a toy without any deeper thought to it, a toy with soft (thick) skin and a wet mouth and welcoming body. He's learned a long time ago to go limp when anyone wants to harm him.

(Virus doesn't think it feeds Sei's deep resentment at all. It's just a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. That they are the way they are. That they are aimed at him right now. That he doesn't have the right to his own will. So Sei will never resent them. Sei doesn't even resent Toue. Sei resents life. That's the only outlet for him; anything else would make life unbearable, and Sei has had a lifetime of learning where to push his feelings to make life bearable, since he's forced to bear it.)

But today isn't one of those days anyway. Today is a special day. A day to treat him gently and kindly, to kiss him and whisper endearments and focus on Sei's pleasure, whether or not he wants to to be focused on. (He'll have to praise Trip later. It's hard for Trip to be so kind.) They roll him between him and pretend to be capable of love and force him to come so many times it's probably on the verge of unpleasant before, briefly, getting themselves off.

After, they lie together, Sei tucked between the two of them. In a few hours, Sei's day, his one day to go outside, to enjoy himself, to not be an object, will be over, as if it ever existed in the first place. But, for now, because Sei probably wanted to be held at some point in his life, even if he doesn't want it now, they cuddle him, hold him close.

Virus realizes that Sei is humming; he doesn't recognize the tune. "Sei-san?"

"Sorry. Am I bothering you?"

"That's from that old movie, right?" Trip interjects. "The tea party. A very whatever it was."

"A very merry unbirthday," Sei says agreeably. "You know your children's movies, Trip."

Trip laughs, and Virus sighs. Of course Trip does, the child.

Sei stops singing after that. Either he didn't want it to be recognized, and feels his moment is harmed by the recognition, or he had wanted it to be, and is satisfied with the results.

Of course, it doesn't matter which. It's the same either way.


End file.
